Humanity, Nature, and Survival in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake: An Ecocritical Comparative Study

Abstract

Addressing the growing global urgency of environmental crises in contemporary Anglophone literature, this study examines the relationship between humanity, nature, and survival in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake through an ecocritical Anthropocene framework. A significant gap remains in the absence of a comparative approach that integrates ecocriticism with postcolonial literary studies to analyze representations of humanity, nature, and survival under ecological pressure. This study explores how survival narratives construct ethical awareness, reshape human identity, and redefine human–nature relationships in the Anthropocene. Methodologically, it adopts a qualitative comparative approach combining close textual analysis, ecocriticism, and Anthropocene theory, aligning with interdisciplinary trends in English literary studies. The findings reveal a clear divergence: Life of Pi portrays nature as a formative and spiritually instructive force that fosters resilience and ethical growth, whereas Oryx and Crake depicts a degraded ecosystem reflecting ecological collapse, scientific misuse, and ethical failure. These representations of humanity, nature, and survival demonstrate how literature functions as a global ethical discourse that interrogates environmental responsibility. The study contributes to English literary studies by bridging literary theory with environmental humanities and recommends expanding comparative ecocritical research on Anthropocene literature.